One day I'll have to work out precisely how far I could throw Gordon Brown. That way I will know precisely how much I trust him.
His three non-Labour MP adviser trick would sound great if it wasn't part of what seems a mini-relaunch after Cameron caught up a point or two in the polls. Also, look at the Tory MPs involved.
Well, John Bercow had to be one of them. Highly predictable. A man so semi-detached from his party that Conservative Home forecast in July that he would defect to Labour - a forecast later clarified and apologised for, but not withdrawn.
Patrick Mercer - a man still shrugging off the label "damaged goods" after his allegedly racist remarks a few months ago, which led to his dismissal from the Tory front bench.
Rather than "best brains available", these two seem more likely to fall under the label of potential defectors or the injured antelopes at the tail of the herd, being picked off by a marauding lion.
If Brown were genuinely going to use the best brains from the Tory party it is easy to list the kind of people he should pick. Bercow and Mercer don't figure on the list. My list, which doesn't indicate any personal preference, would start with these names:
Kenneth Clarke
Iain Duncan-Smith
John Redwood
Stephen Dorrell
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Surely this is no big deal - all three parties regularly work together, on policy issues, on parliamentary select committees. Isn't Brown just extending this work into areas which aren't covered by the existing committees?
ReplyDeleteYou're beginning to sound as though you don't like Brown just because he's not a libdem. It's exactly that sort of ding/dong thinking - which pisses the non-anorak wearing non-politicos, which makes up the bulk of the electorate, so much.
I expect I'm missing a point or three but, so far at least, Brown seems like the genuine article particularly when compared with his predecessor.
Anon - if he is genuine in wanting the best brains advising him - why has he not offered roles to the eminent Conservatives I listed at the bottom of the post?
ReplyDeleteIf you take John Bercow, he has been widely described as ready to defect and it seems blindingly obvious to me that Brown is using this advisory role to separate him even more from the Conservatives and cause problems for Cameron.
That is not "ding dong" thinking from me - it is the sort of hidden agenda which should be revealed in a democracy.
My constituency MP John Bercow's disloyalty was the main reason I stopped renewing my Conservative Party Membership as I observed him move further and further to the left and publicly declare his new liberal views. It comes as no surprise whatsoever that he has accepted a job with Gordon Brown and New Labour, following previous disloyalty to the Conservative party and it's leaders. I will never forget when he publicly 'stabbed' Ian Duncan Smith in the back after resigning his shadow post in such a way to cause IDS maximum damage. He is also the self appointed champion of the militant gay rights lobby even when his enthusiastic pursuit of the these rights have meant riding roughshod over religious peoples beliefs and values; as we saw recently with the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs). John Bercow supported the Government's undemocratic forced new regulations completely, which he clearly demonstrated with his letter to the Telegraph at the time and other public statements.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion John Bercow is not a man of conviction or has any real principles, nor, is he a man that shows loyalty to the Conservative Party or it's leaders, he is merely an opportunist MP that blows with every favourable wind, if that wind is a trendy left wing liberal wind, all the better.
What does he have to do, before his constituency officials realise that John Bercow is now more like a 'trendy left wing liberal' masquerading as a conservative. What does he have to do, before they have the courage to deselect him and force him to stand under his true New Labour colours. Or is the only way to remove him as the MP for Buckingham to have a real conservative; someone with traditional conservative values and ideology, stand against him at the next election as an Independent Conservative?
Thank you very much Simon.
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